Are you thinking about how to find threaded comments in Excel 365 or earlier modern Excel editions? Keep reading!
Finding modern comments in Excel can feel like navigating through a maze without a map. Just as a project manager struggles to locate critical feedback buried in long email threads, Excel users can also find themselves lost when searching for specific comments in a busy workbook.
This task might seem challenging when you’re under pressure when you must quickly analyze and visualize data. In this Microsoft Excel tutorial, I have simplified the process in specialized methods of different use cases and their quick steps. Let’s get started!
Find Comments Through Indicators

The default way to identify threaded comments in a worksheet is by locating the small five-sided purple shape in the upper-right corner of the cells that contain such comments.
When the comment is still open for discussion, it’ll show a purple shade.

However, when you resolve the threaded comment, it turns into a dark five-sided shape.
So, when you hover over such a cell that contains the above-mentioned indicators, you can easily locate the comments you’ve been looking for.
Using the Excel Options Tool
Sometimes, you might not see these comment indicators in your workbook. It doesn’t mean the worksheets in the Excel file don’t contain threaded comments.

According to the default setting, Excel will always show the comment indicators so you can easily find a comment by hovering the cursor over the indicator.
However, if a shared workbook is too busy with many comments and replies, some worksheets can become too cluttered, burying the actual content, which is datasets.

To avoid such visibility issues, Microsoft allows you to modify the way an Excel workbook shows the comment indicators. Such customizations are available in the Excel Options dialog box.

If you believe a workbook has comments in its worksheets but can’t see them it’s likely that the comments are hidden.
Press Alt + F + T on the source worksheet to open the Excel Options dialog box.
Click on the Advanced category in the left-side navigation panel.
Scroll down the list of sections and checkboxes on the right side until you reach the Display section.
Below the Display section, select the option that says Indicators only, and comments and notes on hover.
Click OK to save and apply the Display changes.
You’ll now see the default comment indicators.
This feature is however unavailable in Excel Android and iOS apps. There, comment indicators are always visible irrespective of the setting configured in Excel Options dialog box.
Using the Comments Button in the Toolbar
All of the latest Excel editions, like Excel for Microsoft 365 Windows, Excel for Mac, and Excel on the web now include a Comments button in the top right corner, below the Window Restore Down icon.

Click on the Comments button to open the Comments sidebar on the right side.

Alternatively, you can press Alt + Z + C to activate the Comments navigation panel.
Using the Review Tab
The default location of comments and notes in Excel is the Review tab. If your Excel desktop edition supports threaded comments, those should be available for review from this tab.

Go to the source worksheet that has comments and click on the Review tab.
Find the Comments block.
Click on the Next Comment button to cycle through comments in the worksheet one after another.

To view all the comments at once click on the Show Comments command.
The Comments sidebar will show up from the right side.

If you wish to print the threaded comments along with the dataset, go to the Page Layout tab and click on the tiny down arrow in the bottom right corner of the Page Setup block.

The Page Setup dialog box will open.
Go to the Sheet tab, click on the Comments and notes drop-down menu, and select the At end of sheet option.
When you activate this print setting in Excel, all comments within the print area will be included at the bottom of the final page(s) whenever you print a worksheet.
Using the Find and Replace Tool
You can also use the Find and Replace tool to find specific content in threaded comments in an Excel worksheet.
Suppose, you simply want to find out if a specific word or value is available in one or more comments in an Excel worksheet.

Navigate to the source sheet and press the Ctrl + F keys to bring up the Find and Replace tool.

Enter the content you want to look up in the comments into the Find what field.
Click on the Look in drop-down arrow and select Comments.

Hit the Find All button to discover which cells have a comment that also mentions the searched keyword or value.
Using an Excel VBA Macro
If you need to find threaded comments in more than one Excel workbook and worksheets it’s better to automate the task with a simple VBA macro. Setting up a macro is easier than ever if you follow the instructions I’ve outlined below.
There are essentially two steps. First, you learn how to set up a VBA macro using a VBA script by going through this effortless guide:
📒 Read More: How To Use The VBA Code You Find Online
Now, create a macro using the following script. It’ll force Excel to show all threaded comments in all worksheets in one click.

Sub CreateCommentsIndex()
Dim ws As Worksheet, outputSheet As Worksheet, cmt As CommentThreaded
Dim rowIndex As Long
On Error Resume Next
Application.DisplayAlerts = False
Worksheets("Comments").Delete
Application.DisplayAlerts = True
On Error GoTo 0
Set outputSheet = ThisWorkbook.Worksheets.Add
outputSheet.Name = "Comments"
outputSheet.Cells(1, 1).Value = "Sheet Name"
outputSheet.Cells(1, 2).Value = "Cell Address"
outputSheet.Cells(1, 3).Value = "Comment Text"
rowIndex = 2
For Each ws In ThisWorkbook.Worksheets
For Each cmt In ws.CommentsThreaded
outputSheet.Cells(rowIndex, 1).Value = ws.Name
outputSheet.Cells(rowIndex, 2).Value = cmt.Parent.Address
outputSheet.Cells(rowIndex, 3).Value = cmt.Text
rowIndex = rowIndex + 1
Next cmt
Next ws
If rowIndex = 2 Then outputSheet.Delete Else MsgBox "Comments indexed in 'Comments' sheet."
End Sub

Once the macro is ready, press Alt + F8 to launch the Macro dialog box.
There, select the CreateCommentsIndex macro and hit Run.

The VBA macro will work in the background to create a new worksheet named Comments and place it at the first position on the Sheet tab row for ease of access.
You can go to the Comments worksheet and find an index of threaded comments showing cell addresses, sheet names, and comment texts.
📚 Read more: You’ll also want to check out these Microsoft Excel tutorials if you’ve liked this guide:
Conclusions
Now you know how to find threaded comments in Excel 365 and earlier editions that support this modern commenting system.
Which one do you prefer from the range of approaches outlined above in this guide? Do you know of a better technique that I might have missed to explain? Share your replies in the comment box below.
0 Comments